New Year's Eve

We spent New Year's Eve over at our friend Jenn's place along with her other friends. It was fun, we watched the BBC show called Coupling until Dick Clark's New Years Rockin' Eve came on.

Christmas

We spent Christmas in Vallejo this year. I brought an old spare 20" TV that we had with us to hook up in my Dad's office, sine the TV in there would make a loud buzzing sound when there was a lot of white on the screen. On Saturday Mom, Treese, and I went to see Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, and we all really enjoyed it. I wasn't a real big fan of the other ones, but this one was cool. Christmas was being hosted at my aunt's place, so we all headed over there for a delicious meal and the opening of presents. Auntie had me look at her computer since it had given the blue screen of death recently, along with some other popup notices. In the middle of updating their antivirus, the computer froze and I eventually just had to power it down. After that, it would constantly freeze within 10-20 seconds of booting into Windows, though booting into safe mode always seemed to work. What a pain! So I had to fix that, by completely removing the antivirus and cleaning the registry and then reinstalling the antivirus.

Motherboard

The motherboard I ordered for Ray's computer arrived today, so I installed that and got the computer up and running. Later in the evening we went to see a recital that Misty's daughter, Natalie, was in. It was cute. After that we headed over to Ray and Dawn's so I could give Ray his computer before we left for Christmas. After I got it all hooked up I noticed the temperature readings were really hot, and that led me to discover that the main fan wasn't working. So I took the side off and we positioned a desk fan towards its innards, and that actually seemed to work. At least now we know why the last motherboard got fried.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Yesterday we went over to our friends, Ray and Dawn, for dinner. They made Bangers & Mash which was absolutely delicious. We watched an old Saturday Night Live episode which predicted (correctly!) that Jimmy Fallon would host the 2011 Christmas episode. This morning we went to see Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, which we both really enjoyed. Treese's friend Jenn met us there, and then later that evening we went over to her place as she was having a little get together celebrating her end of school.

Bathroom Shelf

Today we went to pick up a gray metal bathroom shelf that we found on Craigslist which we both really liked. Once we got it home I gave it a good cleaning and stuck it in the bathroom.

Real Hooks for Christmast Lights

Our friend Dawn stopped by today to drop off some hooks to attach Christmas lights along the rain gutters of the house. I had previously used makeshift hooks from Chritmas Tree ornament hooks. Not the best choice, but they worked if it wasn't to windy. The real hooks work way better! We also had the Charter Cable guy come out today to fix a problem we were having with our cable card where HBO and Cinemax channels would display nothing but a cable card information screen. All he did when he got here is call someone up and read him some of the numbers off of the screen. Really? And I couldn't have just done that?

Surround Sound

I finally got around to hooking up left and right surround speakers so that we could have 5.1 surround sound. I did it at night so haven't really gotten to experience it yet.

Darth Vader Blankets

Treese was gone when I woke up this morning. She was out with her friend at the new Twilight movie. I called Charter and got our rates reduced. In addition to reduced rates, the promotion they gave me included free HBO and Cinemax for a year. I'll take them if they're free but I wouldn't spend money on them. Treese and her friend went shopping after the movie, and she bought two really cool Darth Vader blankets which are large and very soft.

Thanksgiving

On Wednesday we headed off to Vallejo to visit family for Thanksgiving which was being hosted at my Mom's house. The next morning we headed to Sacramento to pick up my mother-in-law so she could take place in the celebration, and what a trip that turned out to be! The traffic was terrible so it took us a few hours to get there. Once there we used the computer to plot a course back that avoided as many of the accidents as possible, and that worked pretty well. There was hardly any traffic when we took her back to Sacramento late that night. We tried to fill up the tank at Safeway before heading back to Vallejo, but there were padlocks on all of the hoses. On Friday we didn't to much but hang around the house. We took a look at my Mom's record player to find out why the volume was so low, and a little research online told us that it needed a pre-amplifier, so we ordered one of those. Later that night my Mom taught me how to play cribbage. On Saturday I visited both of my grandparents with my Dad. This was also American Express' Small Business Saturday so we all went out and took advantage of that. We headed home after breakfast on Sunday. It was a nice trip. Today I hooked up the subwoofer that I got from Grant, and wow does it make a difference!

Visiting Friends in Red Bluff

Today we went to Red Bluff to visit Treese's friend from work and her husband. They gave us a bunch of old computers he had from various projects that he was just going to throw away. Most of them were missing RAM and hard drives, but I'll see which ones I can put together in working condition. They also gave us an old subwoofer for the computer, a old computer chair, and a box of old SNES games. I'm already liking the computer chair, as my old one was pretty warn, and the arm rests on this chair are lower so I can scoot the chair closer to my desk.

Immortals 3D

We went to see Immortals 3D in XD 3D, and thanks to my BloodHeroes certificate, we didn't have to pay those outrageous prices. Treese enjoyed it, while I just thought it was okay.

Subwoofer

The 5 pack of fuses that I ordered for my subwoofer arrived today, so I installed one, put the subwoofer back together, and that got it working again. It's nice to be able to feel the rumbling of movie explosions.

A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas

We went to see A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas this evening with our friends, Ray and Dawn. We got in using my blood money (movie passes from donating blood). When I tried to actually get the tickets, the lady wouldn't sell them to me because she said everyone needed to be there to show their IDs since it was rated R. What? Isn't that the point of the NC-17 rating? That only people 17 and over were allowed in? I though for R-rated movies only one person in the group had to be of age.

New Power

I bought a computer power supply off of Craigslist today so that I could put it in a computer which was giving me a problem coming out of sleep mode, and the new power supply fixed the problem. But the power supply is 650W gaming power supply which is a little overkill, so I think I'll just buy the 350W one that is supposed to come with this computer and then sell that 650W one.

Oil Change & TiVo Glitch

Since I did my oil change yesterday, today I took Treese's car in. Doing them around the same time just makes it easier to remember when they both need to be done. On the way home I stopped by the eyeglass place to pick out some glasses. I don't really need a new pair, but insurance pays for them once every couple years so might as well take advantage of it. There were only a couple frames that insurance would cover completely, so I just went with the same style of frames I currently have. We had a weird TiVo glitch happen this evening. While watching a prerecorded show, all of a sudden the screen went black for a few seconds, then a video feed from the Redding channel came through for a couple seconds, and finally the video feed switched back to live TV of whatever channel the TiVo was currently on. It freaked us out the first time it happened, and yes, I said first time. Because it continued to happen all night. Eventually I noticed a pattern, that it was happening every hour at four minutes past the hour. Some testing revealed that the Redding channel video feed was coming through on both tuners, it would show up when I had live TV on and when I then when I pushed play on the program being recorded on the other tuner I saw that it had recorded one second of the Redding video feed at four minutes in. Talk about weird.

Oil Change

Took my car in for an oil change today, but turns out it didn't need it. They said the oil had absolutely no discoloration so they just put it back. While I was in the waiting room, I started reading 1984 by George Orwell. I didn't make it very far into the book but already I'm finding it interesting.

In Time

Treese bought me a blanket while she was out shopping with her friend this morning. It's for when we're on the couch, and it's really soft, lightweight, and warm... actually very similar to my current blanket, except this one is big enough to cover my whole body! Now I don't have to choose between covering my feet or my chest. Later on in the afternoon the three of us, plus another of Treese's friends who met us at the theater, went to see In Time. Not a masterpiece of a movie but we enjoyed it well enough.

No More Spirit

When I woke up this morning I found that Treese had turned the heater on. I'm actually surprised we were able to wait this long, as it's already November! Treese stopped by the Spirit Halloween story afterword to see if she could find out their hours, but again they were closed, and apparently there was a missed delivery FedEx note on the door from around 1pm so I guess nobody had been there all day. Man, they sure close up shop fast after Halloween!

Puss In Boots

I went to Radio Shack this afternoon to pick up some fuses for our subwoofer, but unfortunately they didn't have what I needed. No place in Redding seems to have the right fuse, so I just ended up ordering them online. We went to see Puss In Boots in 3D, and we both thought it was a great movie. Afterward we headed over to a friend's to pick up some Menudo. On the way home we drove by the Spirit Halloween store to see what their hours were because we wanted to get some great deals on their clearance items before they went away, but they were closed with no hours posted.

Happy Anniversary!

Today was our actual anniversary. We took a trip to Lassen with my parents, which was fun. There was nobody at the entrance window when we got there, and the sign said most of the place was closed; that we'd only be able to drive 1.3 miles before having to turn around, but the sign was wrong. We ended up driving all the way through, stopping at a few different places. First was a short hike through the woods where a volcano caused an avalanche a long time ago. The last spot smelled of sulfur and had bubbling mud and various dirt and rock hills that spilled smoke. That was all pretty cool. Then we headed home, which seemed to take way longer than getting there. The sun was going down, and it was dark by the time we got home. Treese heated up some of her hot & sour soup for dinner. We got some trick-or-treaters, not a lot, but there were a few really adorable ones. I handed out handfulls of candy, and at the end of the night we still had a bunch left over.

Anniversary Party!

Today was our 10th anniversary party! I think it went really well. My Dad and I cleaned up more throughout the morning, and one of Treese's friends dropped off the cake, which had a three dimensional skull on top covered in powered sugar I believe, and then three dimensional eyeballs scattered around. It looked really cool. Slowly people started to arrive, first Treese's brother and his family, and her mom who came up with them, then my mom, and friends showed up after that. After I got back from an errand I went to change into my costume, which I hadn't really decided on yet, so figured I'd just wear what I wore last year. But when I put it on, it was SOOO hot, so I took it off and tried on other costumes. I couldn't find one that would actually keep me cool, so eventually I just put on something and went out. A couple hours later, I had to take it off. It was a beautiful day outside, and it just wasn't the kind of weather for a black, full-body costume. I exchanged it for some shorts and a t-shirt, which felt wonderful. I conversed more than I usually do, and stayed outside the whole time instead of heading inside to watch television. Strange thing is, I never even had the desire to go in. It felt good being out there and part of the conversations.

Getting Ready For The Party!

My Dad came up yesterday to help us get ready for the big Halloween BBQ party we are having to celebrate our 10th anniversary, then today we just spent all day running around and trying to get set up. Later in the afternoon Dawn called to say Ray's computer crashed and wouldn't turn on, so I had her bring it over. After looking over it, my initial conclusion was that the motherboard just died, though a visual inspection of the motherboard didn't show any signs of why. There was nothing browned, bulging, or leaking, so I'm not 100% sure. This is the computer I just fixed up and gave them a week ago! It was working just fine when I was putting it together and had apparently been working fine for the past week and then today it just decided it wanted to die. Talk about frustrating! So I copied all the files back to their old computer so that he has something to use until we can figure out whether or not to fix this one or upgrade his old one some more or just go for a new one.

Annual Physical

Had my annual physical today, and apparently I'm in excellent health.

Moved the Console Systems

I moved our videogame systems from on the fireplace to inside the stereo cabinet, except for the Xbox which I put next to the cabinet, because I know those things can overheat pretty easily. This should make it look less cluttered. I tried to plug our Wii into the A/V receiver because it's supposed to be able to upconvert analog signals to high-def and output them though the HDMI cable, but unfortunately I found that it only does this for 480p signals, not for 480i signals which is what I had the Wii set to use. I could set the Wii to output at 480i, but it doesn't look nearly as good.

The Black Table

We got a nice, black table today from one of Treese's friends who was just going to toss it. Not sure where we'll put it yet, but I think it would look great over where we just moved our other coffee table, and it's the perfect height so it wouldn't been to be raised with bricks, but it is a little shorter than that table. So we'll see. I also discovered today that our subwoofer was no longer working. Neither one of us could remember the last time we heard it, so it's probably been dead for quite some time. I'll need to open up and see if there's anything obvious that can be done to fix it.

Brick It Up

We moved our coffee table from in front of the fireplace to against the wall, but it was at just the right height to interfere with the multiple outlets on that wall so we picked up some bricks at Lowe's to raise it up. While we were out, we also went to the Halloween store that is in the old Circuit City building. We didn't buy anything, but it was fun to look. Later that evening we went over to our friend's place where I hooked up a new computer for them.

Gutter Time

Spent all morning cleaning the gutters, then followed that up with cleaning all the spiderwebs that under the overhang of the roof. When I was done with that I went to Lowe's to pick up a couple of impact sprinklers, as two of our fixed sprinklers just aren't reaching far enough.

Print Cartridge Error

I unpacked and hooked up the wireless printer in my office this morning. When I turned it on, it gave me a print cartridge error message. I called HP and after getting disconnected while looking for the printer's serial number, I called back and spent over an hour troubleshooting with "Victor". He had quite a strong accent so it took a lot of concentration to understand what he was saying. Eventually he determined there was something wrong with the cartridge and handed me off to someone who could put in an order for a new cartridge. This new guy said it would arrive in a couple weeks or I could upgrade to overnight delivery (one business day) for $17. I said I'd like to have it sooner but there's no way I'm paying that much so he checked with his boss and was able to waive that fee. So it should arrive either tomorrow or Monday.

Donation Day!

Finally remembered to put out the bags of clothes for the donation truck that comes by! We've had that big sitting in our room forever because I always forgot to put it on the curb on the day they scheduled the truck to come by. Later in the afternoon we headed to Sacramento, as her sister was in town visiting before the Navy shipped her out to sea, and Treese wanted to visit with her before that happened.

New Wireless Printer

We got a new wireless printer that was on clearance for only $25. I'm going to try it out for a bit and if it seems to work good then I'll pack up and sell my current printer.

Happy Birthday Julia!

Today is my sister's birthday. Happy birthday!

The Thing

We went to see the 2pm showing of The Thing. Gotta love those free movie passes from donating platelets! Anyway, the movie was awesome! We both loved it. When we got home, we turned on the original John Carpenter's The Thing.

Mmm... Cookies...

We had intended to go see the 4:50pm showing of Drive today, but we were late getting over there so we just stopped by a friend's place instead as Treese needed to give her back some of her food containers. We each sampled some of her home cookies, which were good. On her fridge she had these tiny little magnets which were super strong. I think I'd like to get some of those and glue them on some old Working Designs pins after cutting off the sharp point that goes through your clothes.

Real Steel

We went to see the 5:30pm showing of Real Steel. We both liked it.

Psyclone Inductive Charging System

Found a Psyclone Inductive Charging System for Wii Controllers on clearance at Target for only $7.50, so I snagged that up. I also returned a small Wii-remote that Treese bought several months ago. Those small remotes are definitely comfortable, but unfortunately they chew through batteries like nobody's business. Apparently two AAA batteries just isn't enough to operate a Wii remote for any length of time.

Clean Fridge

I cleaned the fridge today. Now it looks all nice and new... wonder how long we'll be able to keep it that way.

Adding RAM

We went over to our friend's place this evening and I installed some more RAM in his computer. It definitely helped to speed things up, but he could still definitely use a full upgrade. When I was done we watched a bunch of the old Big Bang Theory DVDs they had.

A Day of Computers

One of Treese's friends dropped by with a couple computers, one Dell and one Gateway, plus a flatscreen monitor and backlit keyboard. Apparently the Dell stopped working and wouldn't boot up or something, and the Gateway was just an old computer. Anyway, she wanted me to get all the images and a few documents off both computers for her, so I did. I didn't even bother plugging the computers in to do that, I just opened them up and connected the hard drives to my IDE/SATA-to-USB device and extracted all the files onto my laptop. And since my laptop doesn't have a DVD burner, I transferred them over a computer that did so I could burn everything to a disc. Later on I took both PCs outside and blew out all the dust, which was a significant amount. There were some dust bunnies so thick that they refused to leave so I had to pick those out by hand. I don't think those machines had been cleaned since she got them.

Shopping At Spirit

We went to the local Spirit Halloween store this afternoon, and spotted some friends shopping there as well, so we all shopped around together. We ended up getting a barbed wire hanging head decoration and a hanging skeleton lady with hair and wearing a white dress. Before we left we made a date to head over to their place this weekend so I could install some more RAM in his computer.

Vallejo!

On Friday we headed on down to Vallejo. We left late so didn't arrive until around 10pm. The next morning we went to Six Flags. It tooks us a while to get through the parking lot traffic to park, but luckily we got to part right near the tram because of our handicap plates. Once in the park, Dad, Treese, and I rode the Medusa coaster, which was a lot of fun. Then Treese and I rode Kong, which was fun but not quite as much as Medusa. Then mom, dad, and I rode Cobra which was a fairly mild coaster ride. That was enough coasters for the time being, so we headed to the animal show which was supposed to start at 1:30pm according to our map, but the sign out front said 2pm. We sat and waited, and a lady came out to appologize for the mixup and said they were getting ready for the show, but at 1:50pm it still hadn't started so we left to get to the lunch event. Dad and I got food while Treese and Mom held a spot on a bench. I got myself and Treese a hamburger and hot dog. We didn't see any vegi burgers for Mom, so she went up to look and turns out she just needed to ask and they gave her one. The food was pretty good. Mom and Treese got a salad as well, so after I was done I went back to get one too. Next we headed out to go see the whale show, but when we got there it was closed off and lots of people were in the arena and it sounded like it had already started even though we got there at like 3:20pm and it wasn't suppose to start until 3:30pm. So that was confusing and a bust. Then we headed over to see the animal show, and actually got to see it this time. They had a skit involving a witch lady for the halloween theme, but I still liked the Turtle Bay animal show better as it shows more animals. Plus, the lady was hard to hear as her mic kept slipping way from her mouth. Finally we headed toward the entrance, looked in some shops, and while Treese and Mom rested Dad and I went to check out the Pandemonium ride, which had a long line and didn't seem all that great, so we all headed home. That was a fun day. On Sunday I went with Dad to get a new lawnmower, and once we got home it was almost time to leave for Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Treese and I had already seen it, but Mom hadn't, and neither had Dad but he wasn't really interested so he stayed behind. After the movie we headed over to The Black Bear Diner where we were going to meet Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa. There were a lot of people inside and we were told it'd be at most 30 minute wait, so we put our name on the list. We actually waited over 40 minutes, and the lady said she came out and called us but we knew that was a total lie because we were out there the whole time. This morning I went for a walk with Mom, and when we got back we packed up the car and headed for home.

Office Dry Erase Board

I put up a black dry-erase board in my office. It had previously just been sitting around so figured I'd put it to use. Then I went through all the papers on my desk, filing some, trashing others, and sticking a few to the board. Felt good to get my area cleaned up a bit. I also cut up a fridge magnet and glued it to a letter opener so that I could stick it to the dry-erase board, and that worked well.

Houseboat Weekend!

We spent this weekend on a houseboat with some friends, which was wonderful. Normally those things are super expensive, but one of our friends works there and they were hosting so we just had to pay for food and gas. We left on Friday and got back on this afternoon. We left the dock too late on Friday to really do anything in the water as by the time we got to our little beach area it was starting to get dark. But on Saturday we went out and floated in the water, and later on we took our very first spin on a wave runner. We also had our first spill on a wave runner, but I actually enjoyed that as well. The rooms were tiny and the beds were so high up that you actually had to walk up a couple steps next to it just to get it. And don't try sitting up or you'll hit your head against the ceiling. On the way back to the dock, Treese got to drive the houseboat for a ways, so she was giddy about that. Overall it was a great weekend.

Sticky Ass Glue To The Tree-Trimming Rescue

Yesterday I went out back to do some tree trimming with a pole saw that I got from my dad. I've used it before, and it works well except that the screws tend to loosen which causes the saw part to disconnect from the pole. So when that happened again yesterday, I broke out my Sticky Ass Glue. Well, it seems to have done the trick because I finished up the tree trimming and it never once separated. I totally love that glue!

Gallagher's Heating and Air Conditioning

Gallagher's Heating and Air Conditioning gave us a call today to offer a free tune up because the lady said she had in her notes that we had requested a refund last year due to the guy not doing what he was supposed to do. I said thanks but no thanks. I don't trust those people and don't want them in my house again. Last time the guy said our heater was totally breaking down and we would definitely need a new one and that there was no point in doing any more tuneup to it. We we called someone local to take a look, he said that everything the Gallagher guy said was complete bull. I showed him the write up that the Gallagher guy gave us, and he said some of the stuff on there didn't even make any sense for the kind of heater we had. So yeah, I don't trust those guys.

Farewell Dinner

We went to Logan's Steakhouse with Lisa, one of Treese's friends. It was a big farewell celebration party for Lisa's ex-roommate who was moving out of state, and there were a lot of people attending. We were hungry when we left the house, and it took over two hours before any food was actually delivered to the table, so by the time it arrived we were ready to chow down. I ordered the nachos, and even though I was pretty famished they still weren't all that great. So that was a bit disappointing.

Lightning

I saw a whole lot of lighting out of my office window, though it must not have been very close because the thunder wasn't very loud.

Contagion

We went to see Contagion, and we both enjoyed it. Definitely felt like something that could really happen.

Racist iPod Touch

My iPod Touch arrived today, so I had to figure out how to transfer the app to it. Once I did, I found that sometimes things do indeed work differently on a real device as compared to the emulator. For instance, scrolling a list that contains Arabic text tends to scroll quite slowly on a real device. If I replace that text with just ASCII text then it scrolls just fine, so I think my iPod may be racist.

NetFlix Price Hike

As many of you are probably aware, Netflix hiked up their prices recently. Today was our last day at our old prices, so today we cancelled the DVD plan. We'll probably keep the streaming for a few months, but if they don't get some new movies on there we'll probably end up cancelling that as well.

Gamma Correction

Finally got around to finding and downloading software for my laptop's video card. Not that it wasn't working, it's just that like many laptop screens mine did not seem to like showing certain colors quite properly. For instance, form fields on web forms were really difficult to see as the gray outline of the fields didn't show up, so a white form field on a white background made the field practically invisible. On on web searches, sometimes ads are show above the search results in a box with a light background color, but unless I was titling the screen at a weird angle that was somewhere between 120 and 180 degrees, the background color of the box looked white, just like the rest of the page. So installing software specific to my videocard allowed me to adjust the gamma, which helped correct these issues. It's still not great, but at least it's better.

No More Braces!

Treese got her braces removed today! She's had them for something like four years, so she was ecstatic to finally have them off. She even brought a box of donuts to her appointment to say thanks. I bought an iPod Touch off eBay, not because I actually wanted one but because I now need one to test the iPhone app I'm working on.

Turtle Bay

We visited Turtle Bay today, this time just Treese and I. We headed over to the animal show to see that again, then afterwards we went to Grossology. This time we took our time, looking at and trying everything and reading every sign. Afterwards, we went over to a friends and hung out for a bit.

Conan the Barbarian

We went to see Conan the Barbarian and the theater in Anderson, as Tuesdays are free popcorn days there. We both enjoyed the movie, though I'm kinda thinking it's not going to hold up so well upon a later home viewing, but we'll see.

E.R.

We ended up going to the E.R. after Treese got off work. So that was fun. I was prepared, though, and had a bag packed and ready to go. It looked different than the last time we were there, as they were apparently remodeling so alternate areas were being used as the waiting room and E.R. At least we didn't have to wait very long, which was cool. I'd say in less than 10 minutes we were brought into the back. We were there for several hours, and I finished off my book Digital Fortress. They released us around 9 or 10pm, so that was nice that we got to go home. Sleeping at home is always more comfortable than the hospital.

Finishing Prey

Finished my audiobook, Prey, while I was out doing some errands. I rather enjoyed it.

A Day in Sacramento

We spent most of the day in Sacramento, first at the courthouse where the adoption went through without a hitch and then everyone headed over to her brother's house for the celebration. There was a lot of delicious food spread out on the table and everyone conversed, and I got to play a game called Dead Nation on the PS3. It kind of reminded me of that old game, Smash TV. I made it past level 8, the Trainyard stage, before it was time to head home.

New Car Battery

I took my car into AutoZone for the free battery check/charge. The guy told me what I had already suspected, my battery was failing. Visually, you could even see it bulging out a little bit. So I bought a new one there since it seemed about the same as buying it at Sears - 3 year free replacement, 8 year warranty pro-rated. He installed it for me right there in the parking lot, which was nice that I didn't have to do it myself. At about 10:30pm we headed out to Sacramento. Her brother's adoption was being finalize tomorrow morning and we wanted to be a part of that joyous celebration. We stayed at a Super 8 and was checked in by a guy who was obviously new. Shortly after we went to bed, he called the room to say he mixed up the paperwork and needed me to come down to the lobby. Lovely....

Exploring the Car Trouble

Had the same kind of car trouble yesterday when I went to head over to the post office, so today I worked on trying to figure out exactly what was wrong with it. I tried starting it up and once again it had a hard time getting going, so after a bunch of research online and trying out my digital multimeter on the battery, I determined that the battery has a very low charge. I tried idling the car for over an hour, but it didn't help very much, so tomorrow I think I'll take it in to get the battery tested.

Car Trouble

I was starting my car to leave on some errands, and was started to find it making a funny clicking sound and not wanting to turn over. I tried a second time, and this time just left the key turned and slowly I started to get the sound where it's trying to turnover, and eventually it did turnover and start. I let it sit for a few minutes, then turned it off and tried again, and it again made the click sound but started up without much trouble, so I went ahead and backed out of the garage and did my errands.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

We went to see the 11:30am showing of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. We both really enjoyed it, and I think it was better than either of us expected.

BBQ

We had some friends over for a BBQ this evening, and once again the flies were out in full force. We really have to do some research on how to keep flies away during a BBQ. They especially seem to like the grilled vegetables seasoned with garlic salt.

Cowboys and Aliens

We went to see Cowboys and Aliens this evening. We both enjoyed it, though admittedly it wasn't all that great of a movie.

Mr. Party

Treese went down to Sacramento to visit with her mom, so I had the house to myself most of the day. Needless to say, I went wild... continuing work on an iPhone app for a client. That's me, Mr. Party!

Art Exhibition

We went to an art exhibition today as a friend of ours had many of her works in the exhibit. It's all abstract stuff, which is not really my cup of tea, but I do like how she combines the colors and textures. A couple a Treese's friends came to the exhibit as well. Afterwards, we went grocery shopping and one of her friends, Lisa, tagged along. We stopped by her new apartment on the way home, as I had never seen it before. It was pretty nice.

No Contacts For Me!

I had an appointment today to get contact lenses. When I went in, the lady said that the fitting was not covered by insurance, and that was like $160 or so, and also that insurance would only cover some of the contacts, because apparently you have to buy boxes of the things and keep throwing them away. Would have been nice had you told me that before! So when the doc came in I said I'd pass. I washed my car when I got home. Later on we watched the premier episode of the new ThunderCats cartoon, and it was awesome! Definitely looking forward to seeing more of this series.

Mr. Creepy

When I arrived home from some errands, I noticed a giant brown hairy spider in the corner under the lip of the door that leads into the garage. The last time I saw a spider that big that wasn't behind glass in some exhibit I was still working at Working Designs, and I saw it in that exact same spot! Back then, I couldn't even bear to walk past it and had to use the front door. I've gotten better since then, and although this one still freaked me out, I was able to walk past it. I then went and got the mail... using the front door, of course, and tried to decide what to do about Mr. Creepy. I didn't really want to kill it, but there was no way I could just leave it there, and I really didn't want to get close enough to capture and release, so I broke out the bug poison and sprayed both the front doorway and the doorway to the garage. Mr. Creepy didn't like that much, and came out of his corner. I kept spraying, and eventually it stopped. I wanted to squish it, but didn't want all that bug juice on my shoe, so got an ad paper out of the recycle bin and tried to throw it over the spider, but the paper missed and went in front. Mr. Creepy was surprised and tried to back up but only made it a step before its legs gave out. I went and got another ad paper, a smaller one, and threw it on the spider, this time getting it. Then I stepped on it...eewwww! I'm fine with snakes and rats and many other bugs, so why am I so freaked out by spiders?

Captain America

We went to see Captain America after Treese got home from work. We got there right on time as we didn't have to sit through but a couple commercials before the previews started. This was the first time I saw the trailer for the new Spider-Man film, which looks much darker and deeper than the original. Captain America was a decent movie, not spectacular but enjoyable enough. We saw it in 3D, though the 3D aspect really didn't add much. It was definitely a conversion, it was NOT filmed in 3D. They should really need to specify this as I'm sure most people would be agitated at spending all that extra money on a crappy conversion. Lucky for us, I have the movie certificates from donating plasma, so we're not spending money on it.

Turtle Bay With Friends

We went to Turtle Bay this morning, and met up with some of Treese's friends from work. When everyone arrived we headed over to the Paul Bunyan area to watch the animal show, and that turned out to be kinda cool. They had several birds, an owl, a fox, a turtle, and a porcupine. And the owl flew right over my head! When the show was over, we headed across that wooden bridge to the main area where the Grossology exhibit was being held. There was lots of cool stuff in there that you could touch and learn all about the noisy and smelly bodily functions. There were even two pinball machines, which Treese and I played. We both wanted to keep playing, but everyone else had already moved on. We both really miss playing pinball. Oh, and there was a really large Operation game with rubber body parts. When we were done there, we looked around the normal Turtle Bay area a little, then all headed over to Red Robin. I ordered a Whiskey River BBQ Burger with a salad instead of fries, and the salad ended up actually coming with the burger, instead of beforehand like in most restaurants.

Open Sesame

When Treese arrived home from work today she found that the garage door would not obey her command. This was completely my fault, as when I was out in the garage preparing to get the recyclables packed up, I accidentally pulled that release cord on the garage door opener that disconnects the opener from the door. I knew I had done it and thought I had connected it back up, but I was mistaken. So this time I actually broke out the step stool and that extra height allowed me to push it all the way back together. After that we both headed to our eye exams. We both thought our visions had changed, but according to the doc they were the same as before, and he said Treese's was even a little better. I don't think I believe him, primarily because I don't trust that eye test. Better? Worse? I have no idea! They're definitely different, but I don't know which one is better. Don't they have technology to just measure the eye and tell you exactly what your prescription is without relying on my guessing skills?

Conair Replacement Part Mixup

Today I called Conair about a replacement part that they sent me for my goatee trimmer, because they sent the wrong part. The guy said it was just a warehouse fulfillment mistake as the order information was correct, and that they probably picked the wrong one because the part that was ordered, DETAIL-189, no longer existed and had been replaced by part #BLD-20. So he got that taken care of and I'll be on the lookout for the replacement part.

Pickup

I left at around 6:40pm to pick up Treese at the airport. I stopped at the Travel Advantage to fill up on gas so that we wouldn't need to do it on the way back. It took me over two hours to get to the airport, and when I arrived I took a wrong turn and ended up in a parking garage. Once I found my way to the proper terminal I pulled up behind another car and looked out the passenger side window but didn't see Treese, so took out the cell and saw I had a message from her. The car in front of me pulled away as I was trying to figure out how to call Treese, and a police officer strolled by and told me to move along, but as soon as I started moving I saw Treese was sitting right there, so she got in and we headed out. It was kinda hard to see because it was dark and the windshield was covered with bug splats. Treese was hungry, so when she spotted a Denny's I pulled onto the exit and we had dinner. I got a pasta dish. When it was time to pay the bill our server didn't even give us a bill, he just told us how much it was. We added it up in our head and it was about the correct amount, if not a little less, so that's what we paid. Then we continued on home. We talked for a while as she told me all about her trip. She was tired, though, so afterward she put on my audiobook for me to listen to while she slept.

Tire Rotation & Oil Change

Since Treese was away for the weekend, I took the opportunity to take her car in for a tire rotation. As they did that, they found that the spare was flat and that there was a screw in the front right tire, so the filled up the spare and repaired the other one. After that, I took it in for an oil change. At both places I read my book, Codex, while waiting.

Returning Home

We had all worked hard all week getting the house cleaned up nice and we made a lot of progress. We didn't do too much work this morning, though, as we'd be heading to Redding before too long. Before we left, I took the RAM out of Julia & Ryans green laptop, which appeared to have some kind of hard drive failure and wouldn't work, and put it in Julia's other laptop that she's had for a while, so now she has 2 GB instead of 768 MB. Then we got everything packed up and headed off a little after one. We got gas at Safeway then hit the freeway around 1:30pm. We did one rest stop, and then continued on until we hit Redding and stopped at Safeway so Julia could get some chips and stuff. Back at the house, it was good to see Treese again. We BBQed polish sausages, tofurkey sausages, vegetables, and corn on the cob. The flies were out in force so I hooked up the bug zapper but I have no idea if it did anything. Didn't really seem like it. I heard no zapping sound and the flies were still everywhere. After dinner, Julia and Ryan took Annie (their dog) for a walk so that gave me time to catch up with Treese. She told me that one of her friends bought her a plane ticket to MIssouri, so tomorrow after work we are driving down to the Sacramento airport and then I'll be picking her up Sunday evening. Oh, and when I tried to get on my computer, the screen wouldn't come on, so I had to power down and when I powered up it couldn't recognize the hard drive! It totally crashed, bombed, died! So I had to switch computers. That was fun, working all night trying to get that set up.

Fun Times In Vallejo

Treese headed back home today while I stayed behind to help Julia and Ryan clean the house while my parents were on vacation. I had dinner at Grandma & Granpa's, and after dinner Julia and Ryan came over to play Tripoli. Julia ended up winning.

Sacramento & Vallejo

We headed to Vallejo to visit my sister and her boyfriend today. Along the way we stopped in Sacramento to have lunch and then to Treese's sister's place, and then took her mom home and hung out there for a little bit while I worked on her laptop. It was evening by the time we arrived in Vallejo, and we learned that they hadn't received any of our text messages even though we were receiving theirs.

Happy Birthday Treese!

We had planned to go see Super 8 today, but I got the time wrong so Treese couldn't get off work in time. So we swtiched it to Rio, but then decided just to skip it as there was no real good reason to go just to be going. So we just spend a nice, restful birthday at home.

NKOTBSB

Treese left for the New Kids On The Block/Backstreet Boys concert on Saturday with her friend. She got back Sunday night, and really REALLY enjoyed the concert.

No More Amazon Referal Revenue

Received a notice from Amazon.com that California Governor Brown has signed into law the bill that is causing Amazon to stop their associates program in California. *sigh*

Homebrewing Friends

Treese BBQ'd up some meat, then we brought that over to some friends. While there, I installed the Homebrew Channel on their Wii for them, and we all watched The Roast of David Hasselhoff, followed by a Lisa Lampanelli stand-up special and MST3K's Wild Wild World of Batwoman, which is just an insane movie.

Green Lantern

We went to see Green Lantern after Treese got off work. It seemed like a typical action/superhero movie. Nothing really great about it.

Home Again

I went out to breakfast with my Dad and grandpa before leaving for home. I could have stayed in Vallejo longer had a couple items of mine not sold on Amazon.com, thus forcing me to return so I could pack them up and ship them off.

Kung-Fu Panda 2 & Mare Island

My parents and I went out to see Kung-Fu Panda 2 in 3D, and unfortunately we were all disappointed by it. Definitely not as good as the first one. Then we went to Mare Island and just walked around looking at stuff. Apparently they were filming something for a movie in the Admiral's old house.

Ray's Book Signing at Borderland Books

I drove down to Vallejo this morning to meet up with my parents and then the three of us headed out to Borderland Books in San Francisco to visit Ray at his book signing. We arrived a little late, but he was still there talking with fans. After talking for a bit the three of us headed out for a little sightseeing. We went to see the Sutro Baths ruins, which are awesome! There's even a cave there you can go in and the ocean slams right up against it. After that we went to the old fort underneath the Golden Gate Bridge. When we were almost back to the house we stopped at Momo's for dinner, which we all enjoyed.

Tree Trimming

Went out back and trimmed some of the higher branches on the tree that is growing over the fence. Later that night, we watched the 2011 MTV Movie Awards, and somehow Twilight seemed to win every award, which is just ridiculous.

X-Men First Class

We went to the 4:15pm showing of X-Men First Class, and we both enjoyed it.

C.R. Gibbs

We went out to dinner at C.R Gibbs this evening. It was our first time going there despite getting a $10 off coupon coupon every year. The food there was delicious, and we both regretted not using all those other $10 coupons that we got the previous years.

Luke Skywalker Force FX Lightsaber

Bought a Luke Skywalker Force FX green lightsaber from some guy off Craigslist. It didn't have the stand, but it lights up and makes the sound effects, and he was selling it for a great price. Treese was really bummed when she got home from work, but she perked up when I brought that out. How can you not smile while controlling a lightsaber with authentic sound effects!

Priest in 3D

We went to see Priest in 3D after Treese got home from work. I'm glad we used the movie bucks I get from donating platelets at the blood bank, because I would not have enjoyed it as much had we spent $25 on it.

Dinner With Friends

We had dinner at a friend's tonight. While there we watched Humanoids From The Deep and some weird Red Riding Hood movie from 1989.

The New Skull

A friend dropped by to give us a cool looking skull that held inside it a lightbulb that flickered like a candle. She didn't buy it that way, either, she attached the lightbulb to a metal base she had and then attached the skull to that. It looks really nice outside near the front door up on the outcropping of brick that's about waist high.

DMV

We had an appointment at the DMV today to get new drivers licenses because we both lost ours. It went surprisingly quick, taking maybe 20 minutes total.

Happy Birthday To Me!

Treese stopped by the house on her lunch break to bring me brownies that had "Happy Birthday Ken" written over them. When she got off work we headed to Market Street Steak House. After dinner we went to Prime Cinemas to see Fast Five, since Prime Cinemas lets you in free on your birthday.

Trip To Vallejo

We headed down to Vallejo on Friday to visit my parents. On Saturday morning I went with my dad to hang out with my grandparents, then later in the afternoon we went to see Thor. This morning we all went out to breakfast then headed back to the house to pack up and head home.

New Laptop

We picked up a new laptop for Treese from some guy on Craigslist. It's slightly smaller than her current one, way lighter, and much faster. We'll see how it works for a couple weeks then put up her old one for sale.

Oil Change & Periodontst

I took Treese's car in for an oil change, and got a ride from their shuttle to the post office. When we got back to Toyota they still weren't done so I played a little Nintendo DS. After that I had a periodontist appointment to go to. Big fun there.

Dinner And Some Movies

We went over and had dinner at a friend's place tonight. Salad and meatloaf was on the menu, and it was pretty darn tasty. We watched Antichrist starring Willem Dafoe, then the original black-and-white version of Little Shop of Horrors followed by some classic episodes of Saturday Night Live through Netflix streaming.

Free Lifetime Pass to National Parks

Treese got a free lifetime pass for national parks, so she went to see The Adjustment Bureau after work to celebrate. I got my final achievement in The Simpsons Game for the Xbox 360 by getting a perfect score on the final stage that is a Dance Dance Revelolution parody where you square off against God. So now I can sell that game and move on to something else.

Paul

We went to see Paul today. Finally a good movie! It looked like they probably had a lot of fun making it too. I'm looking forward to the extra features on the DVD release.

Increasing A Friend's Memory

A friend came over to have me install some RAM she bought for her laptop, so I did and updated the BIOS while I was at it.

Red Riding Hood

We went to see the noon showing of Red Riding Hood. Once again, we were not impressed. Can we get some great movies here please?!

Rango

We went to see Rango today along with one of Treese's friends. I don't think any of us were impressed with the movie.

Battle Los Angeles

We went to see Battle Los Angeles as soon as Treese got off work. It was okay... not bad, but not all that great either.

Restarted Dead Rising

I've been playing Dead Rising on the XBox 360 recently, and today had to start over from the beginning. This will be the second time. The good news is that it gets easier every time you start over because you get to keep all your levels, meaning your just as strong as you were at the time you decided to restart from the beginning.

We went over to have dinner at a friends place and watched Burlesque, The Black Swan, and then Saturday Night Live.

I Am Number Four

We went to see I Am Number Four today. It was definitely set up for a sequel, but the movie wasn't very good so I kinda doubt that's gonna happen.

New Nixeus Firmware Improves Text-Based Subtitles

I like the Nixeus Fusion HD media player, but just like the BriteView CinemaTube, the text-based subtitles weren't very good. I had contacted Nixeus about this, so today they sent me an updated firmware to address the issue, and it's fantastic. The text-based subtitles are now very easy to read. So I think it's now time to say goodbye to the BriteView CinemaTube, which the company isn't even supporting anymore.

Belated Valentine's Day Gift

I had to return the Valentine's Day gift I got for Treese because it did not contain everything it was supposed to contain, so today her alternate Valentine's Day gift arrived. I cleared off the table then set it up at an angle so she'd see it when she walked in, and put flowers next to it. She was stunned when she walked in and her eyes landed upon it, so I was happy about that.

World of Warcraft & Michael Jackson: The Experience

After Treese got home from work we picked up some KFC, went over to a friend's to pick up some menudo, then went over to another friend's to have dinner, which was the bucket of chicken we picked up earlier. I helped get World of Warcraft working for them, and Treese tried out Michael Jackson: The Experience for the Wii for the first time. She really enjoyed it. We played other Wii games as well, such as bowling and Sports Resort. It was a good time.

No Soliciting

Some window washer came to the door today looking for some work and totally ignoring our No Soliciting sign. You think we put the sign up because we like the way it looks?

Our neighbor also came by to discuss two of our trees that are close to her fence line. One of the roots has traveled under the fence and is close to ground level, close to pushing the fence upward, so I'll probably have to cut that one. I'll also need to trim a lot of the branches.

Received an e-mail from our ISP saying they they've increased our speed from 8Mbps to 13Mbps. You'll hear no complaints from me!

Saying Hello To Our New Nexius Media Player

Our new Nixeus media player arrived today. From what I've researched beforehand, it looks like it will be much better than our current media player, BriteView CinemaTube, so I guess we'll find out.

Happy Valentine's Day

Hope everyone had a happy Valentine's Day! Unfortunately, my wife's gift still hasn't arrived, even though it was supposed to be here days ago. But, I gave her a heart-shaped box with a note saying her real gift would be late, but would be worth it. I also cooked dinner for her.

Dining Out

My wife and I had a nice dinner out this evening. It was Applebees, so nothing super fancy, but the food was tasty and it felt good to eat out. It's been quite a while since we've done that.

BBQ Dinner With Friends

Some friends of ours came by tonight for a BBQ. Treese cooked up pork on the grill and I made Rice-a-roni. It turned out pretty good. After dinner we watched Dinner For Schmucks, which we found hilarious. We also watched this old show on Hulu called Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot, which was interestingly bad.

Superbowl Party

My wife's friend came over for a little Superbowl party. We barbecued burgers and generally had a good time. It was a fun day.

Scoring Some Basketball Tickets

I received a call from some lady saying I won a couple basketball tickets. I was a bit suspicious at first, but then I remembered that I had entered some kind of basketball contest online not too long ago... it was one of those coupons that print out after shopping at FoodMaxx and then you go online and enter their codes. So I guess people do really win those things. Too bad it wasn't something we could have actually used. But I'm sure my uncle and his family will like to have them, they're big sports fans.

Kung-Fu Panda

I started playing Kung-Fu Panda this evening. It's actually an enjoyable platformer which kind of reminds me a bit of Sly Cooper.

Lego Indiana Jones

My wife and I took a break from Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and it's buggy stats system which makes it quite difficult to get some of our achievements. Instead, we started playing Lego Indiana Jones. We looked kind of foolish at first, since we were still accustomed to the control scheme of the previous game, but eventually we got the hang of it.

Lita's Art Exhibit

My wife and I went to an art exhibit this evening as one of the featured artists is a friend of ours. She does abstract work where I guess they're supposed to represent moods rather than objects or places. But I do know that they're pleasant to look at. She has some pictures of her art on her facebook page.

Finished Death Hunt on Ervoon

Finished reading Death Hunt on Ervoon by Ray Garton, and despite his warning in the beginning that it wasn't his best work, I still rather enjoyed it. Next I'll be reading Live Girls.

Jury Duty

Whoopie, it's jury duty day! Thankfully I didn't have to be there until 12:15. Once there, I read Dexter By Design until they started the DVD orientation. Then they called names and directed all those whose names were called into a courtroom on the third floor. I was in that group. Then the judge talked a bit and eventually they called out names for people to take jury seats. Again, I was in that group as juror number 7. At the end of the day, I was dismissed as a juror.

Welcome To Our Home

I finally got around to hanging up the welcome sign that we've had leaning against the front of the house for sometime now.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Complete!

I got my last two achievements in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed today! Well, not counting the ones for the downloadable content that you have to pay for. My wife's friend came over so while they chatted and stuff I had plenty of time to play. Afterward, I switched to Ghostbusters in order to attempt getting the last three achievements for that game.

Car Day

Took my wife's vehicle in for a tire rotation and oil change, both of which were free, so that was nice. I had them do a fluid flush of the steering and brakes as well, which had been overdue, and that cost some green that I didn't really want to part with. There was also a recall notice on some part, so had them replace that while they were at it.

We watched the premier of The Cape this evening. I thought it was kinda silly and doubt it will last, but we still have it on the season pass to see how it goes. We also watched the premier episode of Shameless on Showtime thanks to the free weekend preview. Both my wife and I really enjoyed that one.

Lunch With Friends

Had lunch over at a friend's place today. We brought a bucket of KFC and after lunch Misty braided my wife's hair while I got her new laptop all set up, removing all those trial offers and putting on some real anti-virus protection. Plus, getting it to work with the printer, which was a bit of a pain.

Beat Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

I beat Star Wars: The Force Unleashed again this evening, but this time on the hardest difficulty level, Sith Lord. The previous times though I always turned my back on the dark side, choosing to save my friends by battling the Emperor instead of taking revenge on Vader, but this time I decided to take the other path, which gave me a different ending, so that was cool to see.

Recalled Part Replaced

Took my car into the dealer so they could replace some recalled part, a computer or something that deals with the idling. Not my preferred way to spend a little over an hour, but at least it allowed me the time to start reading Dexter By Design.

Interview

Had an interview today about doing some PHP work for a local company called GI Design. It lasted almost an hour and a half and seemed to go really well. Unlike all other interviews I've ever had, I actually felt real confidence during this one. And you know what? Confidence feels good! Perhaps it's because this felt more like consulting on projects rather than being judged by a potential employer.

Afterward I took my car in for an oil change and set up an appointment to get a recalled part replaced.

New Year's Eve With Friends

This New Years Eve was a blast. We spent it in the company of our friends, Ray & Dawn, watching movies, devouring a delicious dinner of pile-taco-ingredients-on-your-plate. I'm not sure how Mexican places do it, as whenever I try to make my own taco or burrito or enchilada it always just turns into a big pile of generic Mexican food. I'm sure it's my fault for overloading the tortilla, but in my defense they really don't list weight load limits on the packaging.

We were going to bring shredded cheese with us, but it went moldy a day or two before and then we completely forgot to pick some more up before went over there. But at least we remembered to bring a couple other things that we'd forgotten the last couple times we went over.

It snowed for the first time this winter, with huge flakes easily visible against the dark night. It looked enchanting covering everything in sight, except the roads, which was awesome because we still had to drive home later.

We ended up watching This World, Then the Fireworks and The Big Lebowski, and of course Dick Clark's Rockin New Year's Eve 2011. He sounded much better this year.

I really liked this New Years Eve. There was no drinking like several years ago, and we didn't just stay home like last year. At least, I think that's what we did last year. Actually... I don't remember. But this year we sat with friend and watched movies, one of my favorite past times.